New York's MTA may ban political ads after 'Killing Jews' ruling

NEW YORK, April 24 (Reuters) - Stung by a court ruling
ordering it to display a controversial ad from an anti-Muslim
group on its buses, New York's Metropolitan Transportation
Authority may adopt a policy that it said would allow the ban
after all.

According to a letter submitted on Friday to U.S. District
Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan, the authority's board plans on
April 29 to vote on whether it should exclude "all
advertisements of a political nature" from MTA property.

That would include the ad from the American Freedom Defense
Initiative, which portrayed a man wearing a scarf around his
face, with a quotation "Killing Jews is Worship that draws us
close to Allah" attributed to "Hamas MTV," and below that,
"That's His Jihad. What's yours?"

The group sued the MTA for rejecting the ad. On Tuesday,
Koeltl said that rejection violated the group's First Amendment
rights because the MTA did not show the ad could incite
terrorism or imminent violence, including against Jews.

In Friday's letter, MTA lawyer Peter Sistrom said it was
"beyond dispute" that the state-run authority could convert its
property into a "limited public forum" that banned political
ads, mooting the lawsuit.

He also said the proposed policy has been in the works for
some time, and was not a "hasty reaction" to Koeltl's decision.

The MTA asked Koeltl to continue delaying enforcement of his
preliminary injunction ordering it to run the ad, until the
lawsuit could be dismissed.

"The notion that the MTA can moot a constitutional violation
by changing its policy after the fact and wishing away the
violation is absurd," said David Yerushalmi, a lawyer for the
American Freedom Defense Initiative. He said the group's damages
claim alone meant the case was not moot.

Lawyers said the proposed MTA policy might survive possible
legal challenges, if it was not meant to target particular ads.

"Apart from streets, parks and sidewalks, the government as
owners of space can restrict its speech uses as long as it does
not engage in discrimination on the basis of point of view,"
said Frederick Schauer, a University of Virginia law professor.

Marci Hamilton, a professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of
Law in New York, said: "Where the public transportation is open
to all, there is a strong argument to designate a limited public
forum to ensure a peaceful and efficient system aimed at getting
the public to their destinations first and foremost."
(Editing by Ted Botha)